Rick Wise
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COW Coin
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I suspect from your recent post, Antonio, that you have not understood suggested use of 70 and 100 Zebras. If you are shooting caucasian faces, and you set your Zebras to 70, and you adjust the exposure so that there is just a HINT of zebra on the faces, you will have good exposure for those faces. You may find, however, that if your subjects are in bright sunlight (or any right light) and the bride is wearing white (most likely she is) then adjusting exposure for the faces may make her dress bloom and loose detail. Depending on the dress and the bride, that could be good, but more likely will cause much post anguish.
Since you are so unsure, I’d suggest you turn everything to auto. Auto focus, auto exposure, even auto white balance. Concentrate on framing and catching those important moments over which the bride, groom, moms and pops will sob and cheer when they view it for the first time, before storing it away for another 50 years, when the survivors can once again pull it out and possibly see it again, though technology will be so different they probably cannot.
I am being a bit harsh here. However, having shot three weddings for free I have seen how, even though the initial screenings were greeted with genuine delight, these videos are just not looked at again. Probably the best purpose is for the bride and groom to see what actually went on (at least a part of it) since none of us can remember that great day without photographic help. When we were the bride and groom, we were just too deeply involved at the time.
A critical and difficult part of shooting a wedding is the audio. Unless you can put a radio mic on at least the groom, getting good sound will be very, very difficult. An alternative is to get yourself very close to them when they say the vows, and have a good or decent external mic on the top of your camera. The cheapest semi-decent solution I know of is the Rode Video Mic. (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/363083-REG/Rode_VIDEOMIC_VideoMic_Camera_Mounted.html) $150. If you are shooting outside, be sure to also get the “dead cat” wind muff.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Actually the complete Merlin is a lot less than $4,000; it’s about $2,500 at B&H and probably elsewhere. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/493331-REG/Steadicam__Merlin_Camera_Stabilizing_System.html#features
Or, you can go with just the gimbal part for $800, though your forearm will get tired very, very quickly with any camera over 1 lb in weight.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Quick answer: yes! You can learn a lot from taking stills, a lot about composition, about lighting, about using natural light. You can shoot series of stills to make a photo storyboard.
If possible, work with a light meter. (You say you are going to eventually shoot film, not video.) Figure out the relative ASA of your digital still camera. Or, even better (but much more expensive) shoot film. In fact, shoot slides, since the margin for error is much smaller than with negative.
You can learn a ton this way.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Thanks. That’s by far the quickest and easiest solution, Jerry. Best left to the final, final edit so as to not have to worry about burying that “p” when moving things around.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
There have been a lot of good movies shot on SD, including 60i. As has been pointed out over and over, it’s not the camera, its the filmmaker(s). Sure we want the best “looking” video possible. A great cameraman can make great video with ANY video camera, provided he is free to choose angles, lighting, time of day, etc. to maximize the possibilities and provided he is working with or is him/her-self an inventive filmmaker.
The choice of camera is very secondary.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
There is ALWAYS a better camera about to come out. If you need a new camera now and can afford to buy one — or justify the expense given probable future earnings — then buy. If there’s no rush, then wait. But if you don’t buy because you want the latest and best, you can never buy.
There is also the issue of price. A fully equipped Red, including lenses, is going to run around $50,000. You can buy an EX1 or 3 for a fraction of that price. Or, you can go much cheaper with an under $1,000 Canon HDV30.
It is unlikely that full-size chips, such as on the Red, or on the upcoming Sony F35, are going to be “affordable” for most buyers for a long time to come. The 1/2″ chip on the EX1 or 3 is an amazing price break-through. Everything else in this price range remains based on 1/3″ or 1/4″ chips.
To my mind, for what it’s worth, the cameras to consider today (not tomorrow, mind you, but today) are in the roughly $7-8,000 range:
–for doc: Sony Z7u, Panasonic HVX170
–for dramatic work: Sony EX1 or 3.Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
So there’s no post solution.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
Sure. Copy the clip(S) to a track above where they are now. On the bottom track, select an FX to make this track either partially/totally black and white, or else use Color Curves to darken all the track, or use both FX. Then on the top track, use the FX “Cookie Cutter” to make a circle or whatever shape you desire around your kid. You will have to move that circle as he moves, using keys. Depending on how much he changes place in the frame, this constant key adjustment could take you quite a while. The result would be your kid highlighted while everyone else is either darker or B&W.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
The basic outline looks good. The devil, of course, is in the details. You will want about the same intensity of light on the green screen as on your subject(s). If the two units can do that evenly across the screen, sounds good.
If you can shoot a test first, that would be a good idea — test it all the way through post.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com -
If you key with a large enough Kino, you can probably still use a reflector for the fill side. You may find it easier to use a second, smaller Kino, instead.
Kinos are basically “soft” lights; to make one even softer you can place diffusion on the barn doors; to make it even softer than that, fly the diffusion out in front.
To focus a reflector, hold a small mirror in the center of it, and move the reflector around until the mirror hits the area you want lit.
Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com